Black Rose
by Panther07
Summary: When a mysterious murder takes place in one of the crumier areas of Gotham Terry's on full alert. As the pieces to a highly organized crime come together he begins to think that he's got no worries...He never anticipated the dead woman's vengeful best fri


A/N: Okay, so here's the prologue. There is absolutely no mention of 'Batman' in this chapter, because he enters the picture later on. For future reference Terry is now twenty-three. It's been five years since he graduated.  
  
Disclaimer: As you must well know I do not own Batman or anything of the like. No money is being made off of this story.  
  
~*~  
  
The young woman at the bar's counter was doing her job with ease. She had been exposed at an early age to the gyrating drunks and the loud music, and now she was nearly immune to their affects. Strobe lights installed in both the ceiling and floor flashed wildly around the dance floor, and as many drinks as she served that night, she never once looked up. She wasn't one of those spill-your-guts-to bartenders that pop up so often in movies. Early on she had learned that the less interaction you had with a customer, the less chances they'd start hitting on you.  
  
The small badge on the left lapel of her uniform read 'Toni'.  
  
"Hey, Tone, you just get here?" It was Zoë, Toni's best friend and fellow bartender. As usual, Zoë was late.  
  
"I got in two hours ago when David called and said that you had never showed up. He offered me an extra eighty bucks if I'd do your shift," Toni replied. She didn't look at her best friend, either.  
  
"Oh, damn! I was out with Carlos. You remember Carlos, don't you darling? Well, actually, we didn't really go out.If you catch my drift!" Unfortunately Toni did. "And then he offered to take me to dinner, so we went to this adorable little Chinese place-you should go there sometime, Toni, it's absolutely divine!-and then I looked at my watch and realized it was a work night, so of course I had to rush over here, but who do you think I ran into? Greg! Of all the nerve of him to stop me! But we did stop, and then we talked, and then we went back to his place, and we watched a few shows on his new television, and then I realized it was eleven and that I had to get down here!" Zoë finished speaking with a deep sigh. "I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner. You've been doing my job for a while now. But hey, it isn't as if you were doing anything, right?"  
  
Toni didn't even waste time being hurt or getting cross with her friend. Zoë had always been the inconsiderate one of the pair. It was just part of who she was. She didn't mean anyone any harm.  
  
"No, I was just resting up," she finally said.  
  
Zoë, who had already slipped into her small vest, nodded, as if she had just proved something. "See? No harm done! I'll be here on time tomorrow, okay? And I'll do some make up shifts or something!"  
  
They were nice words, Toni supposed, but she knew better than to hope Zoë would follow through on them. Zoë promised that she'd make it up to Toni every night she was late, and she had yet to follow through.  
  
"You know, David's pretty upset with you," Toni commented, changing the subject.  
  
"Oh?" Zoë asked.  
  
"Yes, he is. You've missed seven work nights in the past month, Zoë. You've been late for another four! Either you leave him understaffed or with one of his waitresses overworked! Zoë, David isn't one of your boy toys. He'll fire you soon, and where are you going to find another job where you make money like this?" Toni's irritation crept through her words. She knew that she'd stop being angry with Zoë before the night was over, but she couldn't help but be worried. Zoë had been more forgetful and flakey than usual lately. She hadn't known how much work her friend was missing until David, the club's owner, had approached her earlier that evening.  
  
"Seven nights? Oh, has it really been that much?" Zoë sat on the bar top and buffed her nails. "Well, I do suppose I'll have to cut back on the nights.But darling, David won't really fire me, will he? I mean, we're old friends."  
  
Toni snorted while mixing a Manhattan for some woman. "Old friends? Zo, hon, all you two do is snipe at each other!"  
  
Zoë grinned. "Well, maybe not old friends, but he like's you, doesn't he?"  
  
Toni arched an eyebrow. "No, he's just friendly, Zo. Sometimes guys are friendly."  
  
Zoë made an "as if" sign and giggled girlishly. She would have said more but David, the man of the hour, walked up then. He had a clipboard in hand and a pencil pushed behind his ear. His blonde hair fell around his gray eyes, and with his slight, lean build, he wasn't exactly handsome, but he wasn't ugly either. And he definitely didn't like her. Guys rarely chose Toni over Zoë. Toni was the prettier of the two, but Zoë was so confident and outgoing that it usually took guys a while to figure out she wasn't all that unique.  
  
"Good evening ladies. I see you've finally decided to grace us with your presence, Zoë. It's about time." David frowned over the clipboard while Zoë giggled again.  
  
"I only come back for you, Davy!" she told him.  
  
"Yeah, well, be at my office at closing time and we'll decide whether or not you'll come back at all tomorrow night," David growled. His tone meant business, and Zoë was smart enough to nod and promise to be present. To Toni he said, "Keep up the good work," and then he was gone, off to check up on the richer of the customers that had requested the top floor of 'The Cable'.  
  
Once he was gone Zoë let out a deep sigh. "Guess you're right, Tone. He really is going to fire me."  
  
Her voice was downbeat, and Toni did her best to cheer Zoë up. "Come on, Zoë. He said that you'd discuss whether you'd be coming back or not."  
  
"If you say so Toni," Zoë replied, though she looked far from convinced. For the rest of the evening she was quiet and subdued, and she began to mix up drink orders.  
  
That was the first sign that something was the matter. However forgetful Zoë might be while getting to work once she was there she never forgot a thing. She knew how to make every drink ever made, and then some. If she hadn't been so good at mixing the drinks and giving them to the right people then David would have fired her long ago.  
  
During the next two hours Toni began to wonder if Zoë was actually worrying about something besides getting fired. She never got a chance to ask though, because at one-thirty exactly Zoë froze while mixing a daiquiri. Toni followed her gaze to a couple that had just walked through the front doors. It was a man and a woman, both dressed sharply and both wearing slick shades.  
  
They nodded in greetings to Zoë who immediately shoved the daiquiri at Toni and whispered, "Please, Tone, finish up my night." Then she removed her vest and made her way towards the couple, a grim look on her suddenly pale face. Toni noticed that Zoë first sat on the man's lap and kissed him before the three made their way to the door. Too furious with her friend to get David and tattle, Toni fumed and thought about what she'd do when Zoë came home that evening.  
  
~*~  
  
Neither Toni Blake or Zoë Fisher were born and bred of Gotham. They both came from Dillsburg, a much smaller city four hours from Gotham. The two young women had met when they were young girls in preschool. Zoë had been part of an elite, rich, snotty group of toddlers while Toni had been the daughter of Dillsburg's only single mother. One would have thought that, considering the differences in their backgrounds, that they would have clashed terribly.  
  
Quite the opposite, in fact.  
  
Zoë had been enchanted with Toni and Toni's entire life, much as a young boy would be enchanted with a puppy. She was so interested that Claudia, Toni's mother, had been married four times before having an affair and conceiving Toni. She was amazed that Toni's mother ran the only bar in town, and that, what's more, Toni was allowed inside!  
  
Toni had, in turn, been fascinated with all of Zoë's possessions. She had very much enjoyed going to Zoë's home in their childhood and playing with Zoë's countless dolls and watching movies on Zoë's daddy's large television and riding in Zoë's mommy's car. Both had envied each other in different ways, and as time progressed both began to despise their own lives.  
  
Claudia was a drunk, and so the bar was usually run by Toni herself. The customers never seemed to mind much as long as Toni did her job right. Zoë complained that her parents were "confining conformists." She wanted to escape from their stuffy dinner parties and see the world around Dillsburg.  
  
When the girls were barely sixteen they ran away. They went strait to Gotham, where their illusions of living a life of luxury and freedom were quickly destroyed. For the first few months they lived on the streets of Gotham until finding a dead cheap apartment in one of the worst areas in Gotham. They both held down jobs-well, Toni held down a job while Zoë got money from her numerous boyfriends for doing God knew what-and finished high school.  
  
After graduating they both found a job at 'The Cable', a hip new club with a hip new owner. David had been shady enough not to care that they were vastly underage, and they had worked there for the past three years. Now the two were twenty-one, and they were only a little better off than when they were sixteen. Zoë, as much as she claimed to love her freedom, also loved money, and so she flitted around from rich man to rich man. Carlos and Greg were just a few of her conquests, and, if Toni knew Zoë, they would be forgotten by next Tuesday.  
  
~*~  
  
"Toni? Hey Toni, you got a second?"  
  
Toni had just finished work, and it had taken her longer that night to get ready to leave. David had caught her just as she was walking out of 'The Cable'. His gray eyes were squinted, and his clipboard was still in his hands.  
  
"Toni, you don't know where Zoë is, do you? She never showed up for our appointment.Does she have any idea how much her job is in jeopardy?" He seemed genuinely angry, and Toni shared his sentiments completely.  
  
Zoë couldn't loose her job! There was no where that she could make the kind of money they were pulling down. They were just barely holding down a new, slightly larger apartment, and if Zoë's income was cut out from under them there was no telling what they'd have to resort to.  
  
"No, David. She left about half and hour ago. I thought she was just stepping out for a few minutes.I should have stopped her."  
  
David's eyes softened, and Toni began to believe that there might be some truth in what Zoë had told her about him. Perhaps he did like her a bit. "Don't blame yourself, Tone. It's not your fault that Zoë can't get her act together."  
  
Toni sighed. "She's not a bad girl. I know you don't like her, but really, when I need her to, Zoë can sure pull through!"  
  
David looked very unsure, but finally he nodded. "If she's here first thing tomorrow then I'll consider letting her stay on. But Toni, you've got to let her know that I'm at the end of my rope. I've tried to work things out with her, because I know how much you two need the money, but seriously, I can't have a slacking bartender, especially now that the club's taken off."  
  
Toni smiled softly and nodded. "I'll make sure she knows, David! Goodnight!" she said, and she continued on her way home.  
  
It was just nearing wintertime, and so the nights were crisp and chilly. The last remains of red and gold and orange leaves blew around Toni's feet, foretelling of the snow that would be sure to come soon. Toni had been wearing the same jacket for the past two years, and by now the once thick thermal lining had worn thin. The purple material of her jacket was wearing thin, and the cuffs were little more than a collection of frayed threads. Her long legs, sheathed in black nylons, were trembling with from the sudden cold, and because Zoë had "borrowed" her gloves she had to keep her hands in her pockets at all times.  
  
The streets of Gotham were fairly empty at that hour. A few drunks stumbled about, and besides the three part-hardy sorority girls that pranced past her, Toni encountered no one. To occupy herself during the long walk home Toni went over the many things she would say to Zoë when she got home. Far to long had she put up with being the adult of the house. It was time for Zoë to take some responsibility!  
  
However, when Toni arrived home it was not Zoë that greeted her but two burly men dressed in casual jeans and brown leather jackets. As soon as they saw her step out of the stairwell one of them flashed her a badge that said, 'GCPD'. Toni's stomach dropped. Something was wrong.  
  
"Ms. Blake, is it?" the other man, probably another cop, asked.  
  
"Yes. Toni Blake." Toni walked quickly to where the two men were standing. "Listen, what's the matter? I've been working since eight and-"  
  
"And so you had no way of knowing that your roommate's dead?" the first man asked.  
  
Toni's knees collapsed. "Zoë? Zoë's dead? But Christ, she can't be dead! No, you're mistaken, it can't be Zoë-"  
  
"Zoë Ilene Fisher? Five-five with copper red hair? A red birthmark on her right elbow, a dolphin tattoo on her ankle, and a pierced nose? Wears a mood ring on her left index finger?" The second officer had taken out a notepad and had rattled off several of Zoë's defining features. Toni felt as though she were going to be sick.  
  
"But.No, oh Lord no! Not Zoë, not now! Oh, please.No!" She began to cry softly, and one of the officers had the sense of mind to help her up. She felt herself being escorted into her apartment, which was somehow unlocked, and then the world went black. 


End file.
